Chair\nProfessor Fan Xitao<\/b><\/p>\n\n
Prof. Fan Xitao is the dean of the Faculty of\nEducation, University of Macau (UM). He is a well-known expert on quantitative\n(especially multivariate) methods and educational\/psychological measurement. He\nhas published over 100 journal papers and book chapters. He was the first\nChinese scholar to be appointed editor-in-chief for Educational and\nPsychological Measurement<\/i>, a major academic journal in education in the\nUnited States; he held this position for two terms, showing international\nrecognition of his academic status.<\/p>\n\n
Prof. Li\nYangmin<\/b><\/p>\n\n
Prof. Li Yangmin is the\ndirector of academic research in the Faculty of Science and Technology, UM. He\nis a well-known scholar in robotics, automation and control systems. Many of\nhis projects have received support from the Science and Technology Development\nFund of Macao SAR and UM\u2019s Research Grants. He is on the editorial board of\nnumerous top-tier international journals, including the IEEE Transactions on\nAutomation Science and Engineering <\/i>and the IEEE\/ASME Transactions on\nMechatronics. <\/i>He has published more than 280 academic papers.<\/p>\n\n
In March 2013 Thomson Reuters released the\npreliminary list of Highly Cited Researchers. Two UM professors made the list.\nThey are Prof. Fan Xitao and Prof. Li Yangmin. The list includes authors of the\nmost influential publications in 21 broad subject categories in life sciences,\nmedicine, physics, engineering and social sciences, based on citation metrics.\nResearchers on the list represent less than one-half of 1 per cent of all\npublished researchers, and their citation frequency in their respective areas\nof expertise ranks among the world\u2019s top 1 per cent.<\/p>\n\n
Citation frequency is an important measure of a\nuniversity\u2019s research achievements and the academic standing of its faculty. In\nrecent years UM has increased funding in scientific research and recruited\nhigh-quality academic staff internationally, leading to considerable\nimprovement in teaching and research. The fact that two UM academics joined\nThomson Reuters\u2019s Highly Cited Researchers List and that the citation frequency\nof their published papers hits new highs demonstrates the university\u2019s\norientation and the policies it is implementing have been successful. In this\ninterview, Prof. Fan Xitao and Prof. Li Yangmin share with us how they feel\nabout being named Highly Cited Researchers as well as their future research\nplans.<\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n
J:\nJournalist F: Fan Xitao L: Li Yangmin<\/b><\/p>\n\n
J: How many journal papers and book chapters have you published so\nfar?<\/b><\/p>\n\n
F: So far I have published more than 100 journal articles\nand book chapters, with about 70 journal articles published in SSCI- or\nSCI-indexed international journals. I\u2019m happy to see that some of my research\npublications have been noted and cited by many researchers in different\ndisciplines. I hope that I can keep up this momentum in the future. In the\nfield of education, to publish in internationally competitive SSCI- or\nSCI-indexed journals could be more of a challenge, as many journals in the\nfield of education are not indexed by SSCI or SCI. All these make SSCI-and\nSCI-indexed journals more crowded and more competitive. In addition, education\nresearch tends to have a stronger local or regional cultural and social\ncontext. So for education researchers, it is important to frame the research\nquestions in such a way that they would be internationally appealing, thus\nbetter suited for internationally competitive journals.<\/p>\n\n
L: I have published 287 papers so far, including\n97 journal papers, 20 book chapters, and 170 conference papers.<\/p>\n\n
J: How do you feel about being named Highly Cited Researcher?<\/b><\/p>\n\n
F: Usually, one may not be able to accurately\npredict which research publications would attract more attention. What a\nresearcher should focus on is producing high-quality research outcomes (eg:\njournal articles) on cutting-edge issues and topics that have considerable\nappeal in one,s discipline, and then publishing the outcomes through\ninternationally competitive outlets. Over time, one\u2019s efforts are likely to be\nrewarded and recognised by the community of researchers and scholars.<\/p>\n\n
L: I am proud to have been named Highly Cited\nResearcher and I think it is a pleasant surprise to me. This honour is a reward\nfor our past efforts, and we will work harder towards bigger goals in the\nfuture. I just received the Long Service Award (15 years) from the university.\nI joined the university in 1997 as an assistant professor, was promoted to\nassociate professor in 2001, and became a full professor in 2007, so I guess\nyou could say I grew together with the university every step of the way.\nBecause I have worked at UM for a long time, most of my papers have been\npublished in the name of the university. According to The Web of Science (WOS),\nI\u2019m ranked ahead of all academic members in terms of the number of published\npapers. Now UM is recruiting more and more excellent faculty members, which\nmeans I will need to work harder to keep my leading position. I appreciate the\nsupport from the top management and administrative colleagues. If every faculty\nmember can be named Highly Cited Researcher, UM’s ranking will also be higher\naccording to the H-index. You can see that many universities in Hong Kong and\nsome universities in the United States have lists of all academicians, fellows\nand Highly Cited Researcher on their websites, not only to recognise individual\nachievements, but also to provide important data for university rankings and to\nattract the best people.<\/p>\n\n
J: What\u2019s your future research plan?<\/b><\/p>\n\n
F: Since I joined UM to lead the Faculty of\nEducation (FED), my main focus has been on building a research culture in the\nfaculty, under which education research will be valued, and academic staff will\nfeel excited about conducting research and disseminating education research\noutcomes through scholarly competitive outlets. This has been a challenge, and\nis likely to remain one in the near future. Personally, I am getting more and\nmore involved in some research projects in collaboration with my colleagues\nhere in FED as well as with researchers elsewhere. Through my increasing\ninvolvement in collaborative research with my colleagues here in FED, I hope we\ncan develop a rich research culture that will help us to make more\ncontributions to UM\u2019s research mission.<\/p>\n\n
L: <\/b>My main research interests\nare robotics, control and automation. My focus in recent years has been on\nmicro\/nano robotics, which use a micromanipulator to realise micro- and\nnano-manipulations. My team has attained some achievements in this novel\nresearch area, and we will consider practical applications of this\nstate-of-the-art technology. My other research interests include developing\nservice robots to help senior citizens and people with disabilities, which I\nthink will have more practical applications in Macao.<\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n
UM\nhas always spared no effort in developing scientific research. In recent years,\nthe university\u2019s top management has formulated a blueprint for transforming the\nuniversity into a research-focused university. This, combined with a clear,\nshared goal among academic staff to attain first-class achievements, has led to\nsome very good academic results. Compared to 2008, the number of SCI research\npapers by UM academics in 2011 grew 90 per cent, and the citation frequency of\npublished papers grew 85 per cent. In certain areas, such as microelectronics,\nChinese medicine, and the Internet of Things, UM already ranks among the top in\nthe Greater China region in terms of papers published at major international\nconferences and in prestigious journals. According to the latest statistics\nfrom WOS, the numbers and citation frequency of published papers by UM\nacademics are steadily increasing, now ranking No. 1 in Macao. The number and\ncitation frequency of published journal papers by UM academics were 372 and\n2,338 in 2012, up 61 per cent and 35 per cent from 2011, respectively.<\/p>\n\n
More\nand more UM academic staff have gained recognition at national and\ninternational levels. Vice Rector Rui Martins was elected corresponding member\nof the Portuguese Academy of Sciences. Prof. Iu Vai Pan was elected fellow of\nthe American Society of Civil Engineers. Prof. Philip Chen was elected\npresident of the Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society of the Institute of\nElectrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Prof. Fan Xitao was selected fellow\nof the American Educational Research Association. Prof. Ben U received the\nPrize for Scientific and Technological Innovation 2010 from the Ho Leung Ho Lee\nFoundation. The microelectronics team received the second-class State\nScientific and Technological Progress Award. Rector Wei Zhao, a well-known\nexpert in computer and information sciences, was appointed chief scientist for\na project under the National 973 Programme. <\/p>\n\n
To\nimprove teaching and research and to produce outstanding graduates, a university\nmust have high-calibre faculty. That\u2019s why in recent years UM has stepped up\nefforts in internationally recruiting excellent academic staff, especially\nchair professors. So far nine well-known scholars have joined UM as chair\nprofessors, considerably increasing the strength of the university\u2019s faculty.\nLooking to the future, UM will build on this strong foundation and make full\nuse of the new campus in order to achieve the goal of becoming a world-class\nuniversity.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chair Professor Fan Xitao Prof. Fan Xitao is the dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Macau (UM). He is a well-known expert on quantitative (especially multivariate) methods and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n